Read Your Journals

There are great benefits to writing journals many of which I talk about in the blog Why I Journal.

But I rarely make the effort to read over my old journals (or blogs). I am always busy either in the moment or getting on with the next thing. 

When I do occasionally read old journals, I learn so much from them. I often get just as much feel-good from reading my journals as I did from writing them.

By reading my old journals I have relived the highs and lows, mostly highs, I experienced when going sober for a year. The joy of waking up clear-headed after a night of socialising. It’s encouraging me to try another extended period of sobriety.

Towards the end of our family holiday in Thailand last year I felt very ill and that has tainted my memories of the holiday. When I was ill, I started to get annoyed with everything about Thailand, the aircon, the heat, the Bangkok bustle, the 7-11 beep beep. Re-reading my journals from the holiday I’m reminded just how much I was enjoying the holiday and Thailand up until the point I got ill.

I am thinking about going back to Thailand either this year or next. When I think about being in Thailand, I question how easy it will be to maintain a vegetarian diet over there. Somehow, I forgot just how plentiful and varied the vegetarian food in Thailand is. But my journal reminded me. ‘It was great to see how easy it is to be vegetarian in Thailand,’ I had written six months ago.

Reading your journals teaches you the progress, effort, success and failures you have experienced over the years, so many of which you have forgotten. It almost makes me feel more human. Sometimes we label ourselves in simplistic terms, just as we label others, but the journal reminds us of our complexity, our nuances, our ups, our downs.

One day I will re-read this blog and it will remind me to re-read my journals.